Flesh trade racket busted: police

Ferozepur: Police on Monday claimed to have busted a high profile flesh trade racket in which eleven persons, including a youth Congress leader who had unsuccessfully contested the assembly elections this year, has been arrested.

SSP Hardial Singh Mann said that there was specific information about alleged flesh trade going on in some hotels, which had virtually been converted into "running brothels," after which raids were conducted on Sunday and several couples caught in a compromising position.

Five couples were apprehended from two separate hotels against whom a case has been registered under various sections of the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act, 1956.

Among those arrested was Malkiat Singh, a Congress leader who had contested the assembly elections against Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal from Jalalabad, and a police head constable.

Three other youths and five women, out of whom three were married with grown children and the other two were minors, were also held, Mann said.

Narinder Kumar alias Sweety, the owner of Green Hotel, was arrested for alleged involvement in the racket while owner of another hotel, Ashok Kumar, managed to escape, he said.

Both these hotels are situated in the high security cantonment area and are in close proximity to the district courts and commissioner`s office.

Out of the arrested couples, one pair was later found to be actual husband-wife who had a five-year-old son.

"We investigated into the case and found out that the duo had been married in 2006 and also had a son from that marriage," DSP Jagjit Singh Saroya said.

"The couple used to meet in the hotel as their respective families did not allow them to stay together due to some differences," he said.